Chapter 17 – Twin Acts of Courage.
The last glimpse Rouge had of Seraph was just before the lift doors shut; he remained impassive even after this, he must have had a heart of ice not to show any emotion. However, there was the small matter of a dead body to deal with first; she noticed Shadow was gingerly approaching the slumped form of the once-mighty Eggman and smiled savagely; he was gone and he'd deserved nothing less. She gave her attention to where Nack was crying into Chalkie's chest, the fox-cat helping to comfort him with the help of Tails, Amy and Jess. Poor guy; bad enough he carried a weight for seven years, then this, her train of thought was derailed by Shadow calling,
"Guys, um, he's not dead".
"WHAT!"
"Look", Shadow leaned down and picked something up from the ground just behind the comatose murderer; it was an empty can of WD40, crushed beyond recognition by Seraph's boot for an appropriate sound effect. "He didn't kill him; he's left him for us to deal with. So, what should we do with him?"
"I'm all for leaving him down here".
"We should do this", Chalkie slid his deadly claws into the open, looking at the body with murderous intent, "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth".
"No, we can't kill like that".
"He did".
"No Chalkie", Nack's voice was still croaky, but his eyes were now focussed and determined, "we can't kill, we swore not to and I won't make the same mistake twice. We're handing him in". The fox-cat looked a little aggrieved before he saw the look in Nack's eyes; against emotion that powerful, even his strength was less than nothing.
"Fair enough, but I saw we get out of here and blow this place sky high".
"No, that'd be a bad idea", Tails chipped in, trying not to make the fox-cat feel bad but having to make his point known, "this whole place is riddled with tunnels, blow one and you could get the whole lot caving in. I'll wipe the computers on this place and make sure there's nothing of value left on the system, it's the best way. Besides, not like there's anything valuable in here, right?"
"Okay, then get to it", Chalkie strode easily over to Robotnik's comatose form and ripped off his bandana, "I'll get this fat beggar to the surface, but I'm not goin' to be gentle about it". Sonic thought for a second before slapping a paw to his face.
"That's a point, how are we going to find our way back to the mineshaft?"
"Already on it", Tails poked his head back round the door, "there's a map function on here; it'll show us how to get there".
"Print one off, I'll go on ahead and mark the path with metal; there's enough trashed badniks about. You can all catch up on the way back". Nack gave a bitter laugh,
"Catch up, with what; we've just found out the most deranged individual this world has ever known just played us for suckers for two years and an innocent Mobian died because of it. If only I'd seen sense earlier". The weasel fell silent as Chalkie straightened up, Eggman trussed like a Christmas turkey and slung casually over one brawny shoulder.
"We'll deal with this later; it's been a terrible shock for all of us", Razzy tried to restore a little order to the proceedings, "now let's follow that black fellow and get out of here". After Tails assured them the mainframe would never work again, the troupe set off, following the route Sonic and co. had taken to get to the scene of the reckoning. None spared anything a glance; a shame in reality – future events may have been very different if anyone had identified the occupant of the plexi-glass container that the base contained.
The journey to the mine shaft was fast as silent; each member of the group wrapped up in his or her own thoughts. It was only when the shaft of sunlight became clear at the surface there was any real discussion, and even then it was only to find the best way to get the still unconscious Eggman to the surface.
"Can any of you lot climb?"
"Yes", Knuckles stepped forwards into Chalkie's shadow, the fox-cat grinning as he buffeted the echidna's shoulder.
"Right, 'ere's how we'll do it; you go ahead an' to the side o' me and support the head, I'll take the body weight". The echidna looked a little perturbed at this, weighing things up in his mind.
"Sure you can manage it; that's a lot of weight to support".
"Heh, I've done heavier; Jess, just like old times gal". The mouse looked up at her former guild mate and smiled,
"You old rogue; just get a bit of a head-start first". The crossbreed nodded and looked back to where Knuckles was already half a body length up; unsheathing his claws again, Chalkie rolled his eyes heavenwards as he always did when embarking on a climb.
"Thank ye daddy" he muttered under his breath as the claws sank into the soft earth and the Mobian pulled himself up, the unconscious obese man proving little problem to the phenomenal strength of the fox-cat. As he climbed, he left his longer bushy tail swinging; just before it pulled itself out of reach, Jess ran at the wall and leapt, gripping onto the appendage and hanging on like grim death as she was pulled upwards. Tails, Rouge and Razzy took to the air, lifting Amy, Shadow and, after some serious coaxing, Nack into the air; the weasel was adamant that he should remain in the mines as punishment for his crimes. It was hearing this that swayed the balance for Knuckles; he decided that he had to do something about the negativity Seraph's revelations had left behind and there was only one thing he could think of that would do it. Why is my life destined to be full of embarrassment?
As he and Chalkie emerged into sunlight and other hands relieved them of the burden of Eggman, the echidna began to put his plan into action. Singling out Tails, the echidna forced a conspiring look onto his face and stood next to the fox.
"Look at all that flat land Tails? Just the place to take the Tornado for a test drive, you wanted to find out the top speed, right?"
"I…" the young genius couldn't have missed the echidna's wink if he'd tried; he wasn't sure what the echidna was up to but trusted his friend, "…never thought of that, good idea. Hey Amy", the rose hedgehog looked over, "fancy going for a serious spin?" Knuckles grinned as he realised Tails would occupy the others; he said he wanted Sonic and Shadow to act a mediums to test the speed and tip the Tornado back over if he decided to take a tumble test. As the two hedgehogs disappeared to find the foxboy's vehicle Knuckles raised his voice.
"Right, there's a truck over there; we'll use it to get this lump of lard to Station Square. Chalkie, care to do the honours?"
"I'd rather dig the grave, but I swore". The cross slung his hated employer over his shoulder and headed off to the truck with the others, the journey not bothering the strong Mobian in the slightest. Once there, the former guild and Knuckles rolled the fat megalomaniac into the back of the vehicle; as Razzy secured him into one of the seats, making sure he'd not go anywhere unless they wanted him to, Knuckles acted; jumping up, the echidna turned on the interior light and in the same action shut the back doors with a resounding clang. Without waiting for explanations he started, hoping he'd have the strength of character to finish what he'd started.
"I need to talk to all of you".
"Okay, Knuckles", Rouge realised this was one of those times when arguing was pointless and decided to make herself comfortable, "what do you want to talk about?"
"I need to tell you a few things, to do with what just happened".
"We already know what just happened", Nack snapped, "I know I shot someone who didn't deserve to die and left his son an orphan, and the man responsible is sat right in front of me". He lapsed back into a broody silence, glaring at the unconscious Eggman as Knuckles toned his voice down.
"I need to tell you that, that you're not the only ones to be hoodwinked by Eggman. I was too". All eyes turned to him, Nacks included, as Razzy spluttered,
"But that's not right; you're Knuckles Echidna; I recognise you from T.V. You've fought against him before and stopped him taking over Station Square, maybe even the world. You're a hero".
"Maybe, but I started out an idiot", Knuckles was just waiting for the comment but it didn't arrive; Rouge apparently was devoting her full attention to what he was saying, "Eggman said your worked helped him build the Death Egg, well, my help let him launch the damn thing". His voice quickened while he still had them in the palm of his hand.
"It was about three years ago and my world caved in on itself. A bloody great metal lump splashed down close to my home and the great egg himself came ashore. I was curious and he told me that a blue hedgehog was coming to invade my land, and Muggins here believed him. Of course, the blue hedgehog was Sonic and from the second he arrived I made his life hell; I stole the Chaos emeralds off him, set traps and robbed rings off him and eventually got into an all-out scrap with him as well. Sonic tried to tell me I was being had several times but I never believed him, I was too thick headed to listen. But eventually Robotnik cast the mask aside and stole something important from me", Rouge could guess precisely what that was but held her tongue; she'd never heard this story from Knuckles before which was surprising enough, but the way he was actually doing himself down to prove his point was against everything she'd ever got used to from the echidna, "Eggman used it to launch the Death Egg and could have held the world to ransom. I had to ask Sonic to help me get it back and he did it; we did it. I've held that in for all this time; Sonic's got too big a heart to embarrass me by telling it, so I've had to say it". At this point, the echidna moved over to Nack and put a hand, a hand that could deliver a punch enough to fell even Metal Sonic, on his jacket shoulder. The echidna's voice was soft as he spoke again,
"You're not the only one to make a mistake".
That took guts, and he did it for us, for them; Rouge looked on this new side of Knuckles in wonderment; he'd never admitted to having a flaw before in all the time she'd known him – she'd pointed them out often enough, but he never admitted them. Nack sniffled as he put one of his own hands on the echidna's glove, taking reassurance in the shared sense of victimisation by the same man. When he was sure the weasel was feeling better within himself, Knuckles removed his paw and spoke to them all again.
"I made a stupid mistake that literally nearly cost the Earth and put unknown lives in danger. I decided to learn from this and look at me now", he spread his arms wide, "I've saved the world more than once and I'm now good friends with Sonic, rather than enemies. That would never have happened if it hadn't been for Eggman. What you do next is up to each of you, but remember this; don't let this get to you – learn from it and grow stronger and look what you've gained; I bet none of you would have ever have known each other if it hadn't been for the guild?" Rouge turned away; that had been almost too much; the emotion behind Knuckles' normally taciturn voice was overpowering and nearly moved her to tears. It had already worked on Razzy, but then he had always had a soft heart.
"So what do we do now?" That had been Nack; she smiled as she realised his speech must have done some good as the weasel's voice wasn't as bitter as before. The guardian stifled a chuckle as he answered,
"Well the first thing we're doing is getting back to Station Square, then we're checking you lot in for a check-up; I want to make sure you're all okay before unleashing you out on the world again".
"Watch it boy, or you'll be the one needing a check up" came Chalkie's low rumble before Jess piped up,
"Pay no attention to him, he's all talk; wouldn't hurt a fly unless it was after one of us". The echidna nodded as Chalkie used his unusual tail to buffet the mouse's flank before heading to the doors again.
"I'll get the others ready to go; can you drive this thing Rouge?"
"Does Amy like clobbering things?"
"Whatever batgirl"; hopping to the floor he waved at the Tornado as it shot across the floor of the scrubland, two smaller blurs keeping pace with the light blue bullet. As he tried to catch the attention of his racing friends, he failed to look up – in failing to look up, he failed to see the familiar silhouette of an egg-shaped vehicle making it's slow, steady way across the mid-afternoon skyline, piloted by a silent arbiter who's life revolved around the paying off of grudges and debts.
The journey back was a lot less frenetic that the journey there; Tails led the way in the Tornado as Rouge, with Shadow sat in the front in case anything happened to her while she was driving. Each vehicle had one of Tail's radios in it so Amy could tell Rouge the way to go as the journey wore on. Knuckles made to doze off in the back seat before Sonic's voice made him peel open a reluctant eye. The blue hedgehog had a curious look on his face as he regarded his back seat companion.
"So what's the deal with sending us off to test the Tornado's speed then rad?"
"I wanted to get Eggman secured ASAP and I knew having you there wouldn't help, so Tails and I conspired to take you out of the picture". The echidna rolled away from the hedgehog and shut his eyes determinedly. Fine, don't say I didn't give you a chance though; Sonic moved into 'annoy' mode as he realised Knuckles was trying to hide something.
"Knuccckkkkkkllllleeeeessss…" Silence.
"Ohhh Knuccccckkkkkkkkllllllleeeeeesssss…" Still silence, but the echidna had his teeth clenched and his hands over his ears, trying to block out the irritatingly high pitched voice. Wow, determined; okay, onto plan B; Sonic gave a wicked grin and poked the guardian sharply in the ribs.
"You've got a death-wish!" Knuckles exploded, cheeks flaming and eyes wild as he reached over to throttle the blue hero; Sonic fended him off as he laughed,
"Tell me Knuckles, or I'll say your name really loud and annoyingly every ten seconds and poke you in the ribs if you try to cover your ears. Come on, talk to me, it couldn't have been that bad unless", his face fell and his eyes started to tear up theatrically, "you, you proposed to Rougggghhhh!"
"Death-wish granted!" Knuckles had had enough of this; he had split his dirty secret once today and he didn't need to be tormented about it. He wasn't holding hard enough to choke off the air completely but it was enough to get Sonic worried.
"Uncle, uncle", Sonic choked as he tapped out.
"No way, not this time". Amy turned to look at the childish pair with a fiendish glower in her eyes.
"Don't make me come back there", she said threateningly before Tails cut in,
"Yeah Knuckles, loosen up a bit", the guardian made to complain about this victimisation before he heard the rest of the fox's sentence, "if Sonic dies it'll mean we'll have to fill in a lot of paperwork, and I hate paperwork". Glancing at his friend's purpling face the echidna snorted and dropped him.
"You were lucky".
"Lucky my butt", amazingly Sonic smiled as he heaved in a breath, "I'm almost immune to chokeholds; Amy's been training me so they barely work any more".
"I wasn't even trying".
"Probably not, but come on, spill", the hedgehog decided to try the puppy-eyes, "what was it?" Much as he was tempted to resume the murder attempt the guardian realised it was hopeless; Sonic was almost impervious to threats, death glares and other forms of intimidation and in this mood would probably make good on his earlier promise; better to get it over with now.
"I…I, er, I told them about, er, about how we, first, you know, the Death Egg bit…"
"The Death Egg", Sonic was agog, "you told them that?"
"Yeah, I said that Eggman had tricked me into fighting you", the echidna looked up with a crookedly embarrassed grin, "I said they weren't the only ones who'd been had by him in the past". Tails finished the turn he was making and spoke up.
"That was a brave thing to do; do you think it worked?"
"Not sure yet, but I'm not doing it again, that's for certain". Sonic grinned as he settled back down in his seat.
"I'm pretty sure you won't have to, but", he paused and thought for a second, "you, er, you never told Rouge that before, did you?"
"Do I have the word 'schmuck' tattooed on my forehead; I wouldn't give her that sort of ammo in a month of Sundays. It was just that, they all needed something to pick them up and that was all I could think of". A paw slapped itself onto the echidna's forehead as Sonic hollered,
"Quick Tails, get to the hospital; I think Knuckles is having an attack of, I shudder to say it, compassion. He needs urgent attention now". The guardian shoved the hand aside and snarled,
"I cold have told them a thing or two about you, you know?" Sonic gave a victory pose and smirked,
"Yeah right; there's nothing you could say about me that's on a par with that", Sonic then stopped joking for a minute as he saw the hurt look Knuckles gave him, "but Amy's right; that took a lot of bottle to do and I'm impressed".
"I'm flattered, now shut up and let me sleep". Huffing and shooting off a last death glare, Knuckles rolled over again and let his eyes drift closed, sleep was coming, oh yes…something exploded in his side and he heard Sonic's giggle.
"Die hedgehog!"
As echidna and hedgehog duelled in the back seats and Amy leant back to try and stop them beating each other to pulp, everyone missed a most spectacular, all out, no-holds-barred internal war. Tails was literally being torn in two; he had been fighting to keep a lid on his internal volcano from the second his elder brother had made the boast of Knuckles having nothing on him. The desire to shout out his discovery for the whole world to hear had almost swept straight over any resistance he'd had in place and he'd been desperately trying to halt the tide at the same time as drive a motor vehicle. He'd long since lost his poker face as the battle had spread to engulf his expressions; he reckoned he probably looked like someone in the middle of a desperate attack of gastroenteritis. It wasn't going to be long before they noticed, but he'd almost managed to force the devilish genie back into its bottle, just a few more seconds…
"You alright Tails?" Glancing over he could see Amy was looking a little concerned at his expression. Giving a last great heave with his self-control, he managed to shove the cork into the bottle top and compose himself into speaking coherently.
"Yes", he ironed his face straight again and looked at her steadily; he daren't look back to where Knuckles was trying to escape Sonics' half-nelson; one flicker of blue and he'd crack completely, "yeah, I'm fine, I just…had a sneezing attack and was trying not to sneeze all over the place. Now do me a favour", he jerked his head backwards and frowned, "sort that pair out". The pink hedgehog grinned and rubbed her hands together,
"My pleasure"; Tails gave his full attention back to the road as he heard mingled pleas of innocence, insanity and mercy in equal parts as Amy muscled in on the contest in the back. This was hopeless; he was nearly at breaking point with this awful, but oh so funny, knowledge and very soon it was just going to batter and bludgeon its way out of him, whether he wanted it to or not.
It was late, very late, when both vehicles finally made it back to Station Square; by mutual agreement over the radios, all ten of the Mobians present had decided to hand Eggman over to the authorities right away, but they had a special twist on the ideas for the reward money. The dictator had woken up from his fear-induced faint and had awoken into a place of poor lighting with a growling engine audible and surrounded by four people who wanted him either dead or at the very least, in more discomfort than he was in at the minute. His first complaint had been answered by Nack, who had slugged him in the jaw and used the remaining half of the human's moustache to bring them virtually nose to nose.
"I said I'd show you a fate worse than death if Seraph didn't; say another word and I'll make good on my promise". Unsurprisingly considering the mask of cold fury confronting him, Eggman had acquiesced to this request impeccably, barely raising a peep until he heard the voice of Rouge come in from the front; it was muffled by the gap between cab and trailer but still clear.
"We'll be in Station Square in about an hour guys; we'll decide where to go from there". Eggman bowed his bald head and took a deep breath; it was one of those horrible things that you simultaneously didn't want to find out and were desperate to know.
"What", he began, nearly quailing as four hating gazes smashing into him, "what are you going to do with me?"
"We had a discussion about it, then voted", it was the mouse who was speaking, her sky blue eyes clouded with distaste, as though the human was something she'd found on the bottom of her shoe, "it was close; Chalkie and Nack here", she indicated the weasel as the light glinted off his single fang, making it look like a shining dagger as its owner resisted the urge to bury it Eggman's neck and Jess continued, "were all for leaving you dead in a ditch somewhere, but we decided to hand you in instead". Eggman breathed a tiny sigh of relief; at least I've got the chance to escape later on, but they hadn't finished yet; the rooster clucked maliciously as he looked up from the paper he was writing on.
"You'll be handed in anonymously with a single letter explaining that your most recent scheme involved the kidnap and forced imprisonment of five individuals…"
"What!" He couldn't believe he was hearing this, "but I never…"
"Seraph took the rap fer 'nough of your dirty dealin'", Chalkie shoved the human in the chest, forcing him back into the seat he'd almost leapt up from, "time fer you t' repay the favour". The fox-cat let his rooster friend continue,
"…with a plan to test the advent of mind control on these test subjects. The scheme was foiled by some third party and they decided to deliver you into the justice of the Station Square police department. There, that should do it", Razzy finished composing the letter and approached the restrained man. Eggman growled as he pinned the letter to the ample chest before stepping back, admiring his handiwork.
"Nice one Razzy; where'd you learn to write so neatly?"
"I'll explain a little later, but now Nack, why don't you do the honours?" Something fast moved in Eggman's peripheral vision but before he could focus on it, he fell into darkness once more.
"Damn that felt good". The weasel rubbed his knuckles as he surveyed the results of his punch; the obese form sagged forwards against the seat restraints, in Lala land once more.
"Still got it eh Nack?"
"You bet", the weasel faced the other former guilders present before returning to his seat; as he buckled his belt he paused at Chalkies' soft tones.
"Somethin' on your mind mate?" Nack gave an ironic smile,
"Plenty of things".
"Anything in particular?"
"No, not really", this wasn't strictly true but Nack decided to play it down, "just wonderin' what to do with meself next, after we drop this slime off at the clink".
"I think I'll answer that", Jessie stood as tall as was it possible for a mouse to stand, "we're all going back to my place; I've got a bottle of Old Moby that's been chilling in the fridge for over a week. We'll have a drink and something to eat, and then go from there, right?" Jess was nervous about this; they had all been through a terrible ordeal together, they would need each other's support to pull through.
"I'll go fer that Jess", her heart beat again as Chalkie stepped forwards and his massive paw cast hers in shadow as he laid it atop the mouse's. Razzy clucked his assent and to the relief of all, Nack smiled for the first time since they'd been released as he completed the quartet of hands, though his mind strayed to the shape he had felt in the inside of his jacket and what it could mean; he'd need privacy to extract it.
"Right, one thing though", the other three looked up at him as he grinned, "we invite the others as well".
